Modern information systems store data in a variety of types of storage volumes or storage devices. Each of the types of storage volumes offers its own storage characteristics. For example, some storage volumes operate at higher speeds by, for example, providing a data cache to store frequently accessed data. Other storage volumes are slower but omit costly components like a data cache and are thus more economical. Many other factors differentiate the variety of storage volumes available on the market today, e.g., capacity, back-up capability, portability, interface, operational modes, reliability, RAID properties, performance, etc.
System designers or administrators typically choose the storage volumes for a particular system based on the anticipated needs of the system. Some systems use a single storage volume while other systems deploy with virtual disks comprised of multiple storage volumes in a storage array. Either way, the system designer conventionally selects the storage system solution based on the anticipated applications to be run on the system. When more than one storage volume is used, the system designer determines the storage system that is used to store data files for each application. This binding of files to storage volumes is typically static and is only changed by manual intervention of the system designer or administrator.
Applications can be configured to store their data on a variety of different storage solutions, but as a result may not be optimally matched for operational efficiency and performance. Occasionally, an application works well with an initial storage configuration, but, over time, the application begins to experience performance problems with the use of the storage configuration. Thus, system administrators monitor the operation of an application to determine if there is a performance or operational problem caused by the storage configuration used to store data for the application. If a problem is identified, the administrator intervenes by binding the data file to another type of storage volume. This can be a time consuming and costly operation to identify the source of a simple mismatch between the data file and the storage volume, and may require bringing the application offline while the rebinding operation is completed, impacting the overall system availability and likely the Service Level Agreement between the service provider and consumer.